Sartor to slam it

Yes, Sartor will take the stage at the State Library on Friday evening to read a poem written for him by the event's host, Miles Merrill. Where Voices Gather is about libraries, which are described - appropriately for the one-time water minister - as "the neighbourhood swimming pool of imagination".

"I'm not going to try and be too smart. I'm just going to read it," Sartor says of his performance. He likens the slam to the Premier's Reading Challenge started by Bob Carr, an inexpensive campaign that has encouraged schoolchildren to read more books. "Poetry is to the written word what art is to the visual image," he says mystically.

Four women and 16 men will present their two-minute poems, stories and monologues to judges from the audience. Two winners will go on to the national final on December 7.
See australianpoetry
slam07.org.